Thursday, March 10, 2011

Japan drug panel finds no link between Vaccinations and Deaths of Children

You might have heard the news that there have been some concern In Japan about the pneumoccocal and Act-Hib vaccines. The latest report published by the Japanese drug safety panel has stated clearly that following investigations, they have found no link between five infants who died this month and the Pfizer vaccine Prevenar 7 as well as the Sanofi vaccine Act Hib.

I have been assured by the Pfizer representative here in Singapore that our batch of vaccines are different from the ones used in Japan. We are currently administering the latest Prevenar 13 vaccines which are manufactured in England whereas the Japanese Prevenar 7 are from the US.

So far Prevenar has been in the market for the last decade and there has not been any major safety concerns after 360 million doses have been distributed. In Japan alone, 2 million doses have been distributed and this is the first time there has been any concern about the vaccine. Japan has suspended the use of the vaccines in order to find the root cause. But as far as their drug safety panel are concerned, there is no link between the vaccinations and the deaths.

All the other countries who are administering Prevenar 13 will continue to administer the vaccine. In Singapore the HSA has not issued any warnings about using the vaccine.

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